Lord Tebbit: Jeremy Corbyn is a Marxist and history shows his policies lead to famine and violence

Tory grandee Lord Tebbit has said Jeremy Corbyn is a Marxist and if his voters weren't so deluded, they'd realise his policies lead to famine, violence and arbitrary detention.

The former chairman of the Conservative party, a close ally of Margaret Thatcher, also defended Theresa May and said she won't be ousted, despite reports to this effect.

Following the shock result of the general election, many have speculated that May will either be usurped in a Tory leadership contest or forced out by Corbyn's Labour Party.

But Tebbit told Julia Hartley-Brewer: "I don't think anybody really in their mind thinks it's in their national interest to have a Marxist in charge of their country.

"A lot of [Corbyn's supporters] are youngsters who weren't taught any reasonable history at school. Every Marxist regime in the world has finished up with many of its citizens imprisoned in jail without fair trial, many of its people starving in famines caused by Marxism, and violence."

May has been heavily criticised in response to recent events, notably last week's Grenfell Tower fire. But Tebbit said those events "would challenge anybody, wouldn't they. Things of that kind are beyond the experience of most people.

"She has done manfully, if I may use that expression, to cope with it.

"Anyone can go around pretending to emote over these things. The question is: what are they doing and are they sincere?

"The Prime Minister was sincere in what she said. She wants to get on with dealing with the consequences of that tragic fire and nailing down who it was, whose advice was taken, to put that fire cladding, that inflammable cladding, on the side of the building."